1994 Charter

1994 Charter (Original)

Mark Knopper and Elise Gerich - January 1994

Objectives of the Group

The goals of NANOG are as follows: 

Will hold three regular meetings of network service providers per year. Establish a forum for the exchange of technical information. Discuss specific implementation issues which require cooperation and coordination among network service providers to ensure the stability of overall service to the network users. Serve as a focal point for other common activities of the participants. Promote and coordinate interconnection of networks within North America and to other continents. 

6.2.1 Program Committee Membership and Selection

Membership and Hosting

The group will have membership that broadly includes network providers. These may include private, public, federal, commercial or other networks that consider themselves providers of Internet services. However the representatives attending this group should be prepared to engage in technical discussions. Membership should not be limited to North American participants though the general focus of the discussion should be from the NA networking point of view. 

Meetings will be hosted by participating network providers who volunteer to provide facilities. Merit Network, Inc. will act as the convenor. 

Addendum to the Charter

November 2000

NANOG is a small venue in which technical matters pertaining to network operations and network technology deployment in Internet providers may be discussed among experts. Such discussions have in the past focused on, but are certainly not limited to, experiences with new protocols and backbone technologies, implications of routing policies on the Internet as a whole, measurement techniques and measurements of Internet health and performance, areas in which interprovider cooperation can be mutually beneficial (such as NOC coordination or security incident response), and maintaining a competitive and level business environment. 

NANOG serves as a bridge between the academic community, technical communities such as standards bodies, and the technical staff of leading Internet providers close to network operations. 

NANOG has strived to maintain a small venue and has consistently worked to maintain a high level of technical content in meetings and all related activities. This has become increasingly difficult as the commercial growth of the Internet has focused general media attention and attention of the investment community on virtually all aspects of the Internet. 

In striving to achieve these goals, all tutorials and presentations, including BOF presentations, are reviewed in advance and are limited to those entirely of a general technical nature, explicitly prohibiting material that relates to any specific product or service offerings. For similar reasons, equipment exhibits are limited to the "Beer 'n Gear" sessions at each meeting.